Greek Drama · Part 15 · Comedy · B2
Aristophanes: Lysistrata and The Frogs
Part 15 of Greek Drama: two of Aristophanes’ most famous comedies. In Lysistrata, in the twentieth year of the war, the women of Athens and Sparta unite, seize the treasury and refuse to cooperate with their husbands until the men make peace. In The Frogs, Dionysus misses Euripides so much that he goes down to the underworld to bring him back, and ends up judging a poetry contest between Euripides and Aeschylus. Comparison and contrast (whereas, while, compared with, on the one hand… on the other, prefer… to), and the language of argument and judgement, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria. The comedies are retold without their bawdy jokes.
Two comedies tonight, both written near the end of Athens’ long war with Sparta. In the first, the women decide that if the men can’t make peace, they will make it for them.
By going on strike, Demetria: they lock themselves in the Acropolis with the city’s money and refuse to live with their husbands until the war ends. It’s a very rude play, and I will tell it politely. In the second, the god of the theatre goes down to Hades to fetch a great poet, and holds a contest to choose between two. Tonight’s grammar is comparison and contrast.
A contest between Aeschylus and Euripides? I know which one I would choose.
Lysistrata (411 BCE) was performed after Athens had lost its great fleet in Sicily, in the twentieth year of the war with Sparta. Lysistrata (“Army-Disbander”), a clever Athenian woman, calls together women from all over Greece, including the Spartan Lampito, and persuades them to refuse to live with their husbands until the men make peace. The older women seize the Acropolis and the city’s treasury, so the war cannot be paid for. A chorus of old men tries to smoke…
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